CONVERTIBLE SALOON

Hawera Star, Volume L, 25 October 1930, Page 13

CONVERTIBLE SALOON

American designers are not slow to produce interesting body types, and the latest open-closed design of Mr. B. B. Ellerbeck, of Salt Lake City, Utah, is particularly ingenious. In this coachwork the two sections of the roof arc hinged together at a .point about three-fifths of the length of the roof from the windscreen, and when the roof is detached from the screen and from the rear body edge it can be swung down into the rear of the body, so that the front section lies at an angle behind the front seats, while the rear section lies alongside it in the manner indicated. A window let into the front of the roof then serves as a windscreen for the rear passengers, and the rear portion of the roof forms a cowl further to protect them from draughts. The pillars above the door-hinge uprights are connected by off-set dowels to horizontal bearings in the body of the roof, and in order to lower the top the pillars are first twisted through an angle of 180 degrees, so as to clear the roof sections during the lowering process. The rear doors have also l to be opened to give clearance to the widest portion of the top near the hinged joint, while, the roof is actually being lowered. The doors carry winding windows, so that when the door is closed I it is a. four-door, dour-light structure I with a rigid top. Altogether a type of • body that might enjoy a decided j vogue. - j